Women's Swimming & Diving Headline

Wednesday March 7, 2012Lewark Becomes First Male Diver in Six Years to Earn a Trip to NCAAs

Sophomore Mike Lewark (Davie, Fla.) made quite an
impression this afternoon at the NCAA Zone B Diving Regional competition when
he finished third off the platform with a combined score of 702.50 after the
preliminary and final rounds at the James E. Martin Aquatic Center in Auburn,
Ala.

Head diving Coach Donnie Craine put it both simply, and
best - “we’re going to Seattle for NCAA’s, and it’s going to be awesome.”

Lewark becomes
the first male diver in six years – the last UF diver to appear at nationals
was Jonathan Wilcox in 2006 – to advance to the NCAA Championships for
the Orange and Blue, and looks to make another point in two weeks as he has
finished strong in his last two meets. The sophomore earned the first SEC,
podium finish of his career when he had a career, 362.65 score off the platform
for a bronze medal at the SEC Championships, and again, today at the Zone B
Regional showing.

“It was just, great,” remarked
Craine. “After the first six dives Mike was in third, and we knew that if
Mauricio Robles Rodrigruez of Tennessee and John Santieu of Auburn were ahead of him which, they were, the
No. 3 finisher was getting the ticket. From that point on we knew that we just
had to stay there in that spot.”

Craine added “We got some
pressure from FSU’s Michael Neubacher and Alabama’s
Jordan Lesser heading into the last round, but we managed to pull away and
finish third.

Teammate Chris Jones (Palm City, Fla.) Finished 14th off the
platform with a score of 290.80.

Senior KayleeDoback(Brandon, Fla.) just missed her
opportunity to move on to the platform finals when she collected a 220.30 score
from her five dives off the platform.

The Gators will conclude the
2011-12 season of the next two weeks. The women’s team will travel to familiar
grounds, Auburn, Ala., for the NCAA Championships March 15-17, while Lewark and the men’s squad will make their way
cross-country to Seattle, Wash., for the NCAA championship meet, which will
take place March 22-24.

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up-to-date information about the Florida swimming and diving team, make sure to
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